Bhubaneswar, August 17 (odisha.in) Orissa’s school and mass education minister Bishnu Charan Das finally submitted his resignation to the chief minister Naveen Patnaik Friday for raising the marks of his son in the high school certificate examination.
“The minister has submitted his resignation. It has been accepted and has been sent to the governor” chief minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters. I have resigned on moral ground” Das after submitting his paper.
The magic marks episode came to light in the first week of August after the Commissioner-cum Director, Secondary Education who held the additional charge of the President of Board of Secondary Education, Orissa that conducts the HSC Examination, sought a report from the Secretary after getting an anonymous call relating to manipulation of marks in the result sheets of the relatives of the VVIPs and the particular roll number which was found out to be the case of Ministers’ son .
“In a confidential letter I asked the Board Secretary on 3rd August to inquire into the case and submit a report within 48 hours . Instead of getting any reply, I was divested of the additional charge of the President “, said the Commissioner-cum- Director, Debendra Chandra Mishra.
In the mark sheet, the Minister’s son was awarded 89 in Oriya in place of 39, 80 in English against 50, 60 in Mathematics Paper-II in place of 40, 50 in Science instead of 40 and in Social science Paper II, it was 54 against 45.
The School and Mass education Minister, Das however was quick enough to deny his role in the increase of marks in and attributed it to a possible computer error.
Despite the fact that my son- Bijoy Shankar was a good student, I doubted his securing abnormally higher marks ,on May 29 last ,the day, the results of the HSC Examination was declared and asked him to apply for rechecking”, clarified Das.
“Bijoy applied twice for rechecking of his valuation papers and to my utter surprise, my expectation came true as the marks were much less than that of in the final results sheets” the minister had said.
However the minister was under attack when he failed to clarify when over 8000 candidates were in the line for a recheck of their valuation papers, how his son’s case was disposed off so quickly.
The opposition’s parties, students and teachers were demanding resignation of Das over the matter. The chief minister had ordered the chief secretary Ajit Kumar tripathy to probe into the allegation and submit a report. Tripathy is still probing the allegations and yet to submit a report.
Odisha.in News desk with inputs from Bauribandhu Moharana